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He thought about Lyric and how there was nothing she could say or do that would ever make him want to hurt her.

People weren’t all the same. Some could sit at a business dinner while a man they hired killed their wife, and it didn’t bother them.

Then there was Viper. He’d seen the worst humanity had to offer. He’d rather walk away than be like the scum he sent to prison.

He had a chance with Lyric, and he wasn’t going to waste it. He was going to try to be his best self, the one he didn’t often get to show others in his line of work, and hope they were happy together. And if for some reason they weren’t as right for each other as he’d thought they were, then he’d walk away before he hurt her, or she hurt him.

It didn’t have to be a fight. It wouldn’t be that way for them.

“Something’s wrong,” Kelly announced, staring at her phone in the seat behind him.

“What do you mean?” Viper wondered if they’d missed something.

“It’s Lynn. I told her not to come over tonight. I didn’t tell her why.” She turned the phone and showed him the text that pinged.

LYNN:HE KNOWS!!!

“What does that mean?” Viper glanced up and down the street, making sure all was clear, even though theywere two blocks over from where the team was apprehending Spike.

“Oh God.” Kelly pressed her fingers to her lips. “Aaron knows I’ve been sleeping with his wife.”

Viper couldn’t hide his surprise. “That’s why he had no problem with Rich setting up the hit.”

Kelly’s eyes filled with tears. “You have to keep her safe.”

He couldn’t believe she’d kept this crucial piece of intel from them. “Do you think he’d harm her?”

“He’s willing to kill me, his sister. Then, why not his wife, too?”

Viper swore under his breath and pulled out his phone to call his brother. “We have a problem.”

“Explain.” Nick, ever efficient with his words.

“Kelly and Lynn are having an affair. Aaron knows,” he told his brother. “We need him in custody now.”

“The team will move on him after we have Spike in custody,” Nick said, just as the team leader announced over the comm, “Spike just arrived.”

Viper checked his watch: 6:28 p.m.

Rich should be sitting down to dinner now in a crowded restaurant. What he didn’t know was that there were also four undercover federal agents in the restaurant with him.

Viper glanced at Kelly in the rearview mirror where she sat in the back of the SUV waiting for all this to go down.

“What’s happening?” she asked before he could get a word out.

“Our target just arrived. The team will have him in custody in a few minutes.”

“Suspect approaching house from the rear,” theteam leader announced, though only he could hear it. Kelly remained quiet and desperate in the back seat.

Viper waited for the call to go out that Spike was in custody.

“What about Aaron?” Kelly’s anxiety filled the vehicle.

“One in custody,” the team leader announced over the comm.

Nick sighed out his relief and gave Viper an order. “Get to the house. We’ll regroup and go get Aaron.”

He hadn’t been their priority. Now they had a potential problem on their hands.